The former patent attorney for window-covering giant Hunter Douglas pleaded guilty this week to a pair of federal felony charges in connection with his alleged swindling of nearly $5 million from the company over 14 years.
Jason Throne, 55, of Rockport, Maine, allegedly submitted and approved bogus bills for the company to pay from a Colorado shell company he and his wife secretly controlled.
and months later he and agreed to pay it all back.
U.S. Attorney for Colorado John Walsh announced Wednesday that Throne had agreed to plead guilty Tuesday to a charge of tax evasion and one of fraud. Throne is scheduled to be sentenced July 13 in U.S. District Court in Denver. The investigation was done jointly by the FBI and Internal Revenue Service.
Authorities said Throne failed to report any of the additional income and has agreed the amounts of restitution are $4,841,146 for mail fraud and $345,348 for false income tax returns.
He also faces up to 20 years in prison.
Since 2000, Throne and his wife, Mary, allegedly pocketed roughly $40,000 a month, using the money to build luxury homes in Steamboat Springs and in Maine, the lawsuit alleged.
No one caught on to the ruse until an employee at Hunter Douglas Window Fashions in Broomfield questioned the expenses.
Throne’s shell company, Patent Services Group, had no office but used a mailbox in Boulder and fax number to bill Hunter Douglas for payment of “state of the art” services it never provided. Throne allegedly took the checks and deposited them into a bank in Steamboat Springs.
Hunter Douglas said in the lawsuit that Mary Throne had no experience in patent issues — although she allegedly billed as much as $300 per hour for such expertise — noting that her only job had been as an aquatic aerobics instructor.
Patent records show Throne is listed as a co-inventor on a number of patents assigned to Hunter Douglas.
Throne was charged in the tax evasion case in February. It is unclear if the Hunter Douglas lawsuit was the impetus for the federal investigation.
David Migoya: 303-954-1506, dmigoya@denverpost.com or @davidmigoya
